Experimental analysis of self-pulsation in 650-nm-wavelength AlGaInP laserdiodes with epitaxial absorbing layers

We have produced self-pulsating 650-nm-wavelength AlGaInP lasers by the inc lusion of saturable absorbing quantum wells (QW's) within the p-doped cladd ing layer. To maintain the pulsation characteristics at high temperature, a multiple QW design has been used. This reduces the saturation of the absor bing layers due to thermally activated charge leakage from the active regio n of the laser, thus enabling strong self-pulsation up to a maximum tempera ture of 100 degrees C, The dynamic characteristics of the absorber wells ha ve been measured using time-resolved photoluminesence techniques on the las er structures. The results indicate that the carrier lifetime in the absorb er is determined by nonradiative processes with a typical decay time of 0.3 ns.